Extendable Generator - Manual

Maintainer: Simon Fan

Based on generator-generator

Usage

Install generator-extendable-generator:

npm install -g generator-extendable-generator

Make a new directory, and cd into it:

mkdir my-new-generator && cd $_

Run:

yo extendable-generator

yoextensions.json

This file describes metadata on your generator's extensions and file locations.

packageJsonTemplate

Path to the package.json template file (the one that will be processed by lodash and copied to the generated project's root). As of 0.1.0, the package.json template file has to be a valid JSON string.

Extendable-generator sets the package.json template's devDependencies property, so that all the extended generators are installed inside the scaffolded project's node_modules folder (local installation).

extensions

Object that describes all extensions required by the generator.

Keys

Follow the $generatorName[:$subgeneratorName] format.

If both $generatorName and $subgeneratorName (e.g., generator:app, backbone:model) are specified in the key string: the generator being extended will have a subgenerator named '$subgeneratorName' which does whatever the original subgenerator did.

If only $generatorName is specified (e.g., backbone, angular): $subgeneratorName will default to 'app', resulting in $generatorName:app.

Values

Object: describes the extension(s). Takes the following keys: generator: The name of the generator from which functionality will be inherited. subgenerators: {String} Single subgenerator names to be inherited. {Array} Multiple subgenerator names to be inherited. aliases: object that maps generator and subgenerator names to their aliased names.

{
    "generator": "generatorName",
    "subgenerators": ["subgeneratorName","anotherSubGeneratorName"],
    "version": "semverVersion",
    "aliases": {
        "generatorName": "generatorAliasName",
        "subgeneratorName": "subgenenratorAliasName",
        "anotherSubgeneratorName": "anotherSubgeneratorAliasName"
    }
}

String: semver, just as package.json dependencies property.

Extending generators: via yoextensions.json

Edit the yoextensions.json at the root of your new generator and run

yo extendable-generator:extend

Extending generators: via CLI

At the root of your new generator, run

yo extendable-generator:extend %generatorName:%subgeneratorName

Example workflow

Gotchas

Extending app subgenerator

Whenever the app subgenerator, the default app subgenerator's index.js file is overwritten by a proxy-generator that invokes the other generator.

Under the hood

Proxy Generator

lib/yo-extensions.js